


House of Cards

by zblade121



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, F/F, F/M, Gender Identity, Roommates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-18
Updated: 2016-10-24
Packaged: 2018-08-23 03:28:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8312248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zblade121/pseuds/zblade121
Summary: Despite her fears, Peridot decides to rent an apartment with the asocial Lapis Lazuli. After all, she needed a roommate who would ask the least amount of questions, and would give her all the privacy she needed. Since Lapis seemed to barely notice Peridot's existence, it would be perfect, right?





	1. Chapter 1

Peridot stared at the bulletin board in front of her. On it, among other things, was one “Roommate Wanted” ad. A two bedroom apartment near school. As she finished reading it, she sighed.

It was her first semester at Delmarva State College, a community college about an hour from where she lived. It was… inconvenient, to say the least. She still lived with her parents, and the two hours of commute each day was a chore. She ripped off one of the phone numbers from the bottom of the ad. She could do this. It was time for her to face her fears and leave the nest.

Her last class of the day had just ended, so she headed home, phone number in hand. She thought about the name on the ad: Lapis Lazuli.

The name was familiar, to say the least. She had a few classes with Lapis, and for someone with bright blue hair, it sure seemed like she hated all forms of attention and interaction. On the first day, Peridot had sat next to Lapis, hoping to make some friends at her new school. Before Peridot had the chance to even say ‘Hello’, Lapis had immediately gotten up and moved to another seat, away from everyone else. Actually, now that Peridot thought about it, she sat completely by herself in the other two classes they had together as well.

Maybe living with her would be a bad idea.

* * *

 

Peridot pulled into her driveway and quickly got out of her car, shutting it off and grabbing her backpack in the process. She ran into her house, up the stairs, and to her room. Slamming the door behind her and leaning against it, she sighed, smiling. Home sweet home. She threw her backpack onto the floor and reached into her pocket, picking out the small, now crumpled, piece of paper. Her hand shook a bit as she stared at it. Even looking at it was making her anxious.

Peridot didn’t particularly mind the thought of moving out. It was the new found lack of privacy that gave her chills. She didn’t know how big the apartment was, or how many bathrooms it had. She felt a jolt of panic flow through her.The mere thought of sharing a bathroom with someone nearly sent her into a full blown panic attack.

She tried to push aside her fears and quickly dialed the number. After three rings, she finally heard a voice on the line.

“Hello?”, the monotone voice asked, sounding bored.

“Um, y-yes, my name’s Peridot? I’m calling about the, uh, ad you posted about needing a roommate?” _Wow_ , Peridot thought, _I sound like a fucking idiot._

“Um… yeah. If you’re interested we can meet up at the cafe across from campus. Is tomorrow at,” There was a pause, “three okay for you?”

Surprised that the voice didn’t immediately hang up on her, Peridot quickly said, “Yes! T-that’ll be fine for me. See you then!”

A bored, “Sure,” was all she heard before the line disconnected.

* * *

 

As Peridot walked from the campus to the cafe, she thought about how she possibly found the perfect roommate. Lapis clearly cared very little about Peridot, and didn’t seem to care about anything at all. Maybe her privacy could be kept intact, after all.

Waiting at a crosswalk, she spotted the cafe. Since she didn’t like coffee, or have any friends, she hadn’t been inside yet. She hoped they at least had something she liked, like hot chocolate. The cold fall breeze was seeping through her thin hoodie. It was green, with a small UFO discreetly printed on the front. Fortunately, her black jeans let very little of the cold through as she walked. She was still desperate to get into a warm building, and she quickly grabbed the open door of the cafe, just behind someone else who was also walking in.

She stepped in, grateful for the rush of warm that greeted her. She looked around for Lapis. It was in that moment she realized she hadn’t actually confirmed that it was even Lapis on the phone. She groaned internally. She hadn’t just _sounded_ like an idiot on the phone yesterday, she truly was one as well.

Hoping that whoever was on the line would find her, she walked over to the counter and began to order. At least she had _some_ luck on her side today; it turned out that the cafe sold hot chocolate. Giving her order and money to the barista, she sat in one of the comfortable looking chairs towards the front of the cafe, and waited for the drink, as well as, hopefully, Lapis.

They weren’t very busy, so her hot chocolate was ready in under three minutes. She started carefully sipping it; she had burned her mouth too many times on these things to make that mistake again. After five minutes she pulled her phone out of her pocket and browsed social media. Ten minutes later and she was starting to get worried that she got the time wrong. She checked her calendar – it definitely said that they would meet at three – and that’s when Peridot began to fear that she had been stood up. Maybe Lapis remembered her sad attempt at friendship and decided she would absolutely not want to be roommates with Peridot. Maybe Lapis thought of the many times Peridot would speak up in class – to the dismay of her classmates – and that was the reason she decided that Peridot would be a terrible roommate.

It was the jingling of the bell on the door that broke Peridot out of her self-loathing reverie. She looked up quickly and watched a flash of blue hair saunter over to the counter to order. It was frustrating to watch someone who was already – Peridot checked her phone – twenty-five minutes late take their sweet time, like it hadn’t inconvenienced Peridot at all to wait so long for her. Well, it hadn’t actually been an issue. Peridot was just going to go home after this, but that wasn’t the point. Lapis began to walk towards her, coffee in hand, and Peridot tried to wipe the annoyed look off of her face. She stood up and reached out her hand.

“Hello, I’m Peridot Greene.”

Lapis looked down at her hand, smirked, and to Peridot’s surprise, actually shook it. “I’m Lapis Lazuli.”

“So, about the apartment?”

The smirk wiped off of Lapis’s face almost as quickly as it had appeared. “The rent is four hundred dollars a month, which includes utilities. Does that work for you?”

Since her parents would just be paying for it, like they did everything else, she nodded. “Yes, that would be fine.”

“Alright, you can move in whenever.” She got up and started to leave.

Peridot stared at her, dumbfounded, and then furious. “ _What?!”_ She nearly screamed. “I got here at _precisely_ three, waited nearly a half an hour for you to show up, just for you to tell me something you could have told me _over the phone?!”_

“Yes.” Lapis’s reply was so calm and monotone that it made Peridot’s blood boil.

_“Why?!”_

Lapis merely shrugged. “Do you want to rent the apartment or not?”

Peridot just stared at her. Of course she did. She deflated, leaving her a bit embarrassed from her outburst. “Yes,” she sighed, “I’ll start bringing my stuff over on Friday.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my very first Lapidot fanfiction! Tags and the rating will be updated as the story progresses. Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I added some future characters and tags, enjoy!

She sat the last of her boxes down on the floor near her bed. It had been quite the endeavor, trying to fit nearly ten boxes into her compact car, but there was no way she was making two trips. She lay down on her new bed, and decided that she could finish unpacking tomorrow. It would be Saturday, and she would have all day to get the job done.

As she rested, she thought about her current situation. As it turned out, the apartment only had one bathroom. She rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands, trying to will away her anxiety. It wasn’t working. She tried to think of some way to make this work. She could replace all of her things and get more… _appropriate_ ones. The thought brought back a familiar feeling of dread and sheer discomfort. _Or,_ she thought sarcastically, _I could just tell Lapis! She won’t care!_ The terror increased tenfold. As she tried to put away all of these bad feelings, she heard a knock at her already open door. Peridot bolted upright. It was Lapis.

“I get my showers in the evenings.”

It took Peridot a moment to comprehend what she said. “Oh, that’s perfect then. I’m a morning person.”

“Whatever.” She was already gone.

Peridot slowly fell back to the bed. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that Lapis honestly didn’t give a shit about her. Everything would be fine.

* * *

 

That evening, as predicted, she saw Lapis leave her room and head to the bathroom. Peridot was lying on the couch, watching season three of _Camp Pining Hearts_ and trying to make herself feel more at home. Towards the end of the episode, she heard the click of the bathroom door and watched as steam poured out, and then as Lapis poured out. She just seemed to flow like water, and Peridot couldn’t stop staring. She was wearing a tank top and shorts, and it was the least amount of clothes Peridot had ever seen her in. _Of course_ , Peridot thought to herself, _people usually wear comfortable clothes around the house_. Still, it felt somewhat odd. Peridot was in a baggy hoodie and a pair of pajama pants. Lapis was barely wearing anything. She stared as Lapis made her way from the bathroom, until she was standing directly in front of Peridot. Expecting her to go back to her room was her first mistake. Well, actually, the staring had been her first mistake. After a moment, Lapis finally spoke.

“ _What_ do you _want?_ ” Her usually bored voice actually had a bit of emotion to it. Unfortunately, it was anger.

Peridot’s blush deepened as she tried to hide in her hoodie sleeves. “Nothing! I was just watching my show!” To her dismay, she realized that the episode she was watching was over, and she had no idea how long ago it had ended.

Lapis turned and looked at the screen. When she turned back, she almost had an amused look in her eye, which was quickly replaced with her previously angry one. “Just-- Please. Leave me alone. We have opposite ends of the apartment. Let’s keep it that way.”

“But this is the living room! This is the only TV in the house. I just wanted to watch my show.”

Lapis was instantly inches away from her face. Peridot quickly realized that Lapis had grabbed the collar of her hoodie and brought her to eye level. “You were watching more than your stupid show,” she nearly growled, dropping Peridot back onto the couch.

Before Peridot could even think, Lapis was already back in her room, slamming the door. She leaned back into the couch, in a daze. All she could think about was just how close their lips had been to each others. And the freckles that colored the space between Lapis’s eyes, across the bridge of her nose. Not to mention her eyes, which were as deep and blue as the sea itself. _Oh no,_ Peridot thought, _That’s it. I’m fucked._

* * *

 

She couldn’t focus on her show after Lapis’s outburst the night before, so she just went to bed. At nine-thirty. She sat her glasses on the night stand and lay down. As much as she didn’t want to, this gave her some time to think. As unfortunate as her situation was, it wasn’t anything she couldn’t deal with. All she had to do was ignore her _stupid_ crush on her _clod_ of a roommate for the next two years. Yes, that would be easy.

_No, it would not._ A voice in the back of her mind brought her back to reality. There was no way that Lapis would be interested in her. She was short and had wild blonde hair that almost looked like a triangle at the right angle. She was… kind of chubby, in a few places. All the _wrong_ places. Her hips, thighs, and belly were all just a bit chubbier that she wanted, despite any attempts to diet or exercise. Her baggy clothes hid it well enough, but in a relationship, there is no hiding. She tried not to compare herself to Lapis. Lapis was tall. Lapis was thin. Peridot didn’t envy her beauty, though. While Lapis was very beautiful, it was a very feminine beauty that Peridot absolutely did not want. And Peridot knew that she was everything Lapis would not want.

Peridot’s biggest fear surrounding a relationship was the emotional intimacy. She could never tell Lapis everything. There wasn’t anyone she could tell. She forced herself away from that train of thought, and tried her hardest to go to sleep. She felt the tears rolling down her cheeks before she finally succumbed.

* * *

 

She almost wished that she had stayed up all night, because her dreams were a mess. Visions of Lapis, and the ocean, and the events of that evening all swirled together in her head. The final thing she saw was a clear image of Lapis’s face, with all of her anger, inches away from her own. Or so she thought, as she awoke with a jolt, her heart racing. She fell back down to the bed as she had yesterday after she finished moving her stuff in, and wished she could go back to that moment. Everything had been so simple.

She checked her phone to look at the time. Eight o’ clock sharp. She figured that that was all the sleep she would be getting that day and threw off her blankets and moving to sit up at the edge of the bed. She yawned and stood up, squealing as her feet hit the freezing floor. Hardwood floors, how could she forget? Her parents’ house had carpet, which she had taken for granted, and she decided that she would invest in some rugs for her room so that she wouldn’t have to deal with a floor made of ice every morning.

The bathroom was right next to her bedroom, so she shuffled in and started preparing for her shower. She got in, got completely soaked, and realized that she hadn’t unpacked any of her toiletries. Of course, that was the plan for today. That didn’t help her much, though, as she stood under the running water and tried to figure out what to do. She could either call for Lapis and ask her to bring in the box with her shower stuff or she could just use Lapis’s shampoo and body wash. Both options had the consequence of making Lapis angry, but Peridot didn’t think she wanted to smell Lapis’s fruity shampoo all day. She picked up the bottle and tried to read the label without her glasses. Strawberry. She popped open the lid and inhaled. Oh no, there was no way she was going to smell like that all day.

She gathered up all of the courage she had to yell for Lapis. It was barely enough.

“Lazuli!” She heard no response, so she tried again. “Lazuli!” Nothing. _Third time’s a charm_ , she thought.

“Lazul--”

The door burst open, slamming into the wall in the process. “I’m here! Fuck! What do you want?!”

Peridot was suddenly very afraid of The Wrath of Lapis. She was also suddenly aware that she was naked, and that Lapis was four feet away from her, even with a shower curtain between them. She began mumbling, “I, uh, I forgot my, uh--”

“Spit it out!”

“My shampoo and body wash! I didn’t unpack anything yesterday and I forgot until I got in here! It’s in the box on the floor next to my bed, near the door.” She didn’t hear anything for a few moments, until she heard stomping back to the bathroom and then heard a box hit the floor.

“Anything else?” Lapis asked sarcastically.

“Actually, could you put it a bit closer to the shower so I can reach my things?” She heard something that sounded like Lapis was rummaging through the box. “Lazuli, no! Please don’t go through my things. Please, Lapis.” Peridot felt like a block of ice had formed in her stomach. Before she could say anything else, a familiar black bottle flew over the shower curtain and into the shower, nearly hitting her. A moment later, the second bottle followed.

“Uh, thanks, Lazuli.”

There wasn’t a response. She peeked out of the shower curtain to find that Lapis had already left.

She picked up the shampoo and read the label. It said that the contents were supposed to smell like ‘Anarchy’. Peridot didn’t know what a political philosophy was supposed to smell like, but this had a spice-like scent. She lathered it into her hair and let herself relax for a minute as she showered. Lapis hadn’t said anything about her choice in soaps. Maybe her fears were unfounded.


	3. Chapter 3

Once she got out of her shower, she peeked out of the bathroom door, desperately hoping that Lapis wasn’t in the living room. She didn’t see her and-- dressed in only a towel-- sprinted the four feet distance between the bathroom and her room. Once she was inside, she frantically searched for the box that had her clothes. She really didn’t like being without clothes for this long. After opening four boxes to find video games (along with other things she knew Lapis would call her a nerd for owning), she finally found the box with her clothes. She decided she wanted to be comfortable as she unpacked her things, so she dug out a pair of boxer briefs, a pair of sweatpants, and a large pullover hoodie.

Just as she finished puling the hoodie over her head, she heard a knock at her door. Thinking back on every other interaction she had had with her roommate, she hoped she wouldn’t fuck this one up. As she opened the door, she saw a very different Lapis Lazuli standing in front of her. Her clothes and hair were the same, but her face was… softer. After what felt like an eternity, but was only a few seconds, she finally spoke.

“Sorry about… being such an asshole to you. Listen,” She paused for a moment, seeming to struggle to find the right words, “I don’t want to be your friend, but maybe we can coexist here without hating each other.”

Peridot wasn’t sure what to say. A quiet, “I don’t hate you,” was what she finally ended up with.

“Maybe I meant something more like ‘without me hating you and you being terrified of me.’”

Peridot thought about that for a moment, before finally laughing about the ridiculousness of the situation. Her second day there and Lapis already hated her, and Peridot must have looked like a scared puppy during each of their interactions. She was still laughing when she finally spoke. “That sounds good to me.”

When she looked at Lapis again, she noticed a grin on her face. She seemed not to notice that she was smiling, because she continued even as Peridot looked at her. After a second, she seemed to come out of her daze, quickly looking angry again. Peridot wondered if her neutral expression just looked angry, because she thought that this exchange went well. “Okay, well… bye,” said Lapis, as she finally left Peridot’s room.

Peridot just stood there, completely in a daze. She couldn’t believe she had made Lapis smile. As she began unpacking her things, she couldn’t keep the grin off of her face.

* * *

 

She hadn’t seen Lapis at all for the rest of the day on Saturday or all day Sunday, but Peridot figured she would see her in class today. It was Monday, so that meant that the only classes she had today were English at eleven and biology at three. The English class was three hours long, so that left her with an hour break to get lunch or get started on any homework that was assigned.

As she drove to school-- which was now an amazing five minutes away-- she thought about her relationship with school over the years. Peridot was an excellent student. She had perfect grades throughout grade school and she graduated as salutatorian from her high school. Although college had just started two weeks previously, she had already completed all of the homework assigned to that point. She was sure that if she shared any of this information with her peers that she would be mocked endlessly. High school had been nothing but pure torture from the constant bullying she received. ‘Nerd’, ‘Dork’, ‘Four Eyes’, and even cruel things that targeted the way she dressed.

She had a fair share of slurs thrown at her for looking like a lesbian, and while they were right about her sexuality, she never gave them the satisfaction of knowing that the words bothered her. Peridot had been good at hiding her emotions in high school. And, luckily for her, college was completely different. Her school was small, but the community of LGBT people was large enough that they had an LGBT Student Support Center. Even on her first day she saw a few people who, if she could guess, were queer. It was nice having people like her at school; in high school she was the only queer person she knew of. Of course, she probably wasn’t the only one, but the attitude towards the community was less than hospitable. If you were queer-- or presumed queer-- you would get your ass beaten right into the closet. Growing up in a rural area had been terrible.

She pulled into the campus parking lot and found a spot close to the school. As she parked and gathered her things, she silently hoped she would make some friends this year. She wouldn’t have a friend in Lapis-- who had made that very clear last night-- but she hoped that there was at least _one_ person at this school who would befriend her.

She walked into the classroom-- she was about ten minutes early-- and took a seat. Since the classroom was larger in size, the chairs all formed (almost) a half circle. Her seat, while still being in the front row, was also at the end of the row, allowing her to see most of her classmates. It also allowed her to get on her laptop without having everyone behind her. It made her very uncomfortable to have people behind her while she was on a computer. As the class started to fill in, she opened up Chalkboard, her college’s homework platform, on her laptop. In a moment, she had the Powerpoint for today’s lecture open, as well as her notes from last week’s.

After finally getting set up, she looked up and noticed that Lapis was walking into the classroom. She suddenly realized that she could have every possible college-related website open on her computer and she still wouldn’t be able to pay attention in class today.

* * *

 

The three hour class was finally over and, if she could guess, she only heard about ten minutes. The other two hours and fifty minutes were spent one of three ways. The first way was, of course, by staring at Lapis. The second, was by trying, and failing miserably, to stop staring at Lapis. And the third was by desperately hoping that Lapis didn’t see her staring. She could have sworn that Lapis saw her _at least_ three times. If she did, Peridot had no idea what hell awaited her when she got home that evening.

Peridot took an extra long time to pack her things until there were only a few people left in the classroom. She scanned the room for a familiar head of blue hair and turned up empty handed. She finally got up and booked it out of there, desperate to get back to the safety of her car. She had no idea what she would say if she ran into Lapis, and Peridot knew that she could be anywhere in the school.

In her haste, she crashed into a girl about her height, who had a wild mane of white hair. The girl was apparently as sturdy as a brick wall, because while she stayed standing, Peridot fell backwards and landed on her ass.

“Whoa, girl, watch out! Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said as she took the girl’s outstretched hand and stood up. “Thank you.”

“No problem! My name’s Amethyst.”

“I’m Peridot.”

A moment of awkward silence passed between them.

“Well… this is super awkward!” Amethyst finally said, laughing.

“Uh, yeah.” Peridot only grinned in response.

“Hey, I just remembered, the Queer Club is having a meeting tonight at six if you wanna come. It’s gonna be totally awesome!”

“The _what_?”

“Oh my god, I totally forgot!” She started laughing again. “Me and my friends just call it the Queer Club, but its actually called,” she adopted a fancy accent, “the _LGBT Student Support Center_.” Her voice went back to normal. “So, whaddya say?”

Peridot was stunned. “Um… what makes you think _I_ would want to go to something like that?”

“Dude, I saw you in class. Your eyes were, like, glued to that blue haired chick the whole time. I know that look. And listen, I haven’t seen you talk to another student in any class we have together. This your first semester?”

“Yeah.” Peridot’s embarrassed look answered the question of her sexuality.

“Well, I thought it would be nice to invite you! You could make some friends! I mean, you seem like kind of a nerd, but I’m sure there will be other nerds that you can hang out with!”

Peridot was annoyed, but almost thankful for the opportunity.

“I’ll… think about it. Thanks”

“No problem, dude! See ya later!”

Peridot waved, hoping that this was the start of something good, and not the prelude to a terrible chapter of her life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I edited the formatting of the previous chapters, as well as using the new formatting for this new chapter. For whatever reason, I can't get AO3 to keep my indenting at the beginnings of paragraphs, sorry! Well, anyways, enjoy chapter 3!


End file.
